15 Facts About Namik Kemal

Namik Namik Kemal was an Ottoman democrat, writer, intellectual, reformer, journalist, playwright, and political activist who was influential in the formation of the Young Ottomans and their struggle for governmental reform in the Ottoman Empire during the late Tanzimat period, which would lead to the First Constitutional Era in the Empire in 1876.

Namik Kemal was particularly significant for championing the notions of freedom and fatherland in his numerous plays and poems, and his works would have a powerful impact on the establishment of and future reform movements in Turkey, as well as other former Ottoman lands.

Namik Kemal is often regarded as being instrumental in redefining Western concepts like natural rights and constitutional government.

However, as a result of the political nature of his writings, Namik Kemal was forced to leave this job by Grand Vizier Mehmed Emin Ali Pasha and so joined his friend and fellow Young Ottoman, Ibrahim Sinasi, on his newspaper Tasvir-i Efkar .

Namik Kemal worked on Tasvir-i Efkar until his exile and flight to Paris in 1867.

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In 1864, Namik Kemal took over the pro-reform newspaper Tasvir-i Efkar after its previous owner and Namik Kemal's friend Ibrahim Sinasi was forced into exile.

In 1868, after being forced to seek refuge in Paris, Namik Kemal began to handle the publication of the newspaper Hurriyet, which espoused the purpose of the Young Ottomans.

However, as a result of their outspokenness, many Young Ottomans were, like Namik Kemal, forced to flee the empire and seek refuge in Western Europe.

Namik Kemal admired the constitution of the French Third Republic, he summed up the Young Ottomans' political ideals as "the sovereignty of the nation, the separation of powers, the responsibility of officials, personal freedom, equality, freedom of thought, freedom of press, freedom of association, enjoyment of property, sanctity of the home".

Namik Kemal drew on the parliamentary constitution of United Kingdom, in preference to that of France which, under Napoleon III, he considered too authoritarian.

Namik Namik Kemal was heavily influenced by Western conceptions of the relationship between the government and the people.

In 1869 or 1870, Namik Kemal was allowed to return to Constantinople and proceeded to write for a number of Young Ottoman-run newspapers, and eventually published one of his own, Ibret, in which he addressed more intellectual, social, and national subjects.

Namik Namik Kemal protested against Murad's deposition, and continued to support Murad's Western political perspectives, but ultimately, his pleas failed to have any effect and Murad V stepped down in 1876.

Namik Namik Kemal had an enormous influence on the formation of a Turkish national identity.

Namik Kemal's focus on national loyalty, rather than loyalty to a monarch contributed not only to the spread of democracy during the early 20th century, but to the formation of the modern Republic of Turkey after the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire.